Cognitive Heterogeneous Networks

Cognitive radio is expected to play a key role in improving the efficiency of spectrum utilization. Hence, it is not surprising that cognitive radio has attracted the attention of researchers in the context of heterogeneous network (HetNets). Communication networks are viewed as spectrum‐supply chain networks. This framework provides a natural way to capture the hierarchical multitier structure of HetNets. Provisioning efficiency requirements of 5G, this chapter provides an economic model for resource sharing among different networks, where resources include both spectrum and infrastructure. The resource‐sharing problem was considered as supply‐chain integration or network horizontal merger, which is conducted at different levels based on decoupling of spectrum and network infrastructure. The strategic advantages of mergers at different levels are compared via a quantitative synergy measure, which considers the premerger status as the baseline. It is built on a holistic viewpoint for optimally controlling the super network, which is composed of different spectrum‐supply chain networks.